Raising Work Levels among the Poor

Lawrence M. Mead

This paper attempts, with a broad brush, to describe the problem of low work levels among people who are poor, assess the usual explanations for it, and suggest the best approach to solving it, which I believe lies in work requirements within the welfare system.

Few poor adults work regularly, which is the main reason why they are poor, and it is difficult to trace the problem to limitations of opportunity, such as low wages or lack of jobs. Efforts to raise wages for low-skilled people or to raise skills through voluntary training programmes can be worthwhile, but have little effect on poverty. The much greater need is simply to cause poor adults to put in more hours at the jobs they can already get. Voluntary programmes or other opportunity measures do not achieve this.

To raise work levels, an effort to enforce work is unavoidable. This approach is also more realistic than radical-sounding proposals to end or transform welfare. The effort to enforce work as well as other civilities, however, is deeply controversial. Dispute over what can be expected of poor people / not lack of opportunity / is the main reason why chronic poverty exists in America today.

My analysis focuses on the long-term poor working-age adults, who are the core of the social problem.